“World's Most Complete Neighborpedia”
Explore:   What's happening in your neck of the woods?

The 2007 Real Estate Market: Bad or Good?

 

houseWhen looking back at the 2007 residential real estate market, consideration should be given to both the number of sales and to the home prices.  And depending on your point of view, the market has been bad (if you're a seller who just purchased in the last 2-3 years) or good (if you're a buyer and have more time and inventory to consider than you had previously thought possible).

In terms of the number of sales, consider these resale numbers nationally:

  • In 2001, 5.3 million sales - highest level to date (as of 2001)
  • In 2002, 5.6 million sales - climbing...
  • In 2003, 6.2 million sales - climbing...
  • In 2004, 6.8 million sales - 2nd best year
  • In 2005, 7.1 million sales - best year in history so far
  • In 2006, 6.5 million sales - 3rd best year
  • In 2007, 5.6 million sales - just as high as our recent great year of 2002

And here in Howard County, with our nationally-recognized school system, and Ellicott City recently named as one of the top 10 places to live in the US, we are nestled between both the Washington DC and Baltimore City job markets, and we have the government workforce, Ft. Meade and BRAC:  We are in the enviable position of having a much more stable housing market than many other locations across the country.

Buyers are still buying existing homes, as they should.  And Sellers are still selling their homes, most of them for more than their original purchase price, and generally recouping any loss at their next purchase.  So I ask, isn't the state of the market sometimes a simple matter of perspective?

Best regards,

Posted Saturday Feb 16

Welcome to the rain and this is a very good outlook, when you listen to the media the way they talk about local real estate is always with national numbers and it is such a shame. You sound like you know your market and people should always ask a professional like yourself instead of the media for the true numbers of any real estate market.

Once again welcome to the rain,

( 02/18/08 12:44PM ) — Gretchen Conley

Todd,

Thanks for the welcome!  This seems like a great forum and I'm excited to be a part of it!  I do think that the media is in a tough position, always trying to one-up the competition and hook everyone in with the headlines.  I think there's somehow a correlation between all the trashy daytime talk shows, and then Oprah and Ellen managing to go to the top, with a totally new (at the time) concept of positive and interesting subject matter.  Eventually the news will find a new and deeper concept, but until then, it's up to all of us to get the word out on the real state of the markets!

 Best regards, Gretchen

Post a comment

Temporarily disabled — coming soon!